A political storm in Spain has been triggered by the decision of the 68-year-old actress, Ana Obregon, to have a child through a surrogate in the United States of America
By Athena Papakosta
A political storm in Spain has been triggered by the decision of the 68-year-old actress, Ana Obregon, to have a child through a surrogate in the United States of America. Four Spanish government ministers are taking a stand and calls to review the ban on surrogacy are back on the table for public debate in the country.
It all started a week ago when the magazine ¡Hola! published a photo of the actress, Ana Obregon, smilingly holding her newborn daughter in her arms outside a maternity hospital in Miami, United States. As the magazine wrote, Obregon had her daughter via surrogate, three years after she lost her only child and only son, Ales Lekios, to cancer. The actress herself confirmed the news by posting the photo in question on her personal accounts on Social Media, noting: “a light full of love visited my darkness. I won’t be alone again. I live again.”
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Spain caught fire after what started as gossip about what the country’s celebrities are doing quickly turned into a political debate. “Surrogacy is a practice that is illegal in Spain. It is recognized as a form of violence against women,” said the Podemos MP and the country’s Minister of Equality, Irene Montero.
This position of the minister was also defended by other ministers of the government coalition but from the Socialist Party of Spain. “Women’s bodies should neither be bought nor rented to satisfy anyone’s desires”, emphasized the Minister of the Presidency, Felix Bolaños, while the Minister of Budget, Maria Jesus Montero, commented that this is “yet another way of exploiting the female body ».
The issue of renting out women’s reproductive functions is divisive worldwide. First of all, commercial surrogacy is paid. In contrast, altruistic surrogacy is done without the exchange of financial compensation. Critics of the practice equate both forms with human trafficking, while the United Nations characterizes it as “the sale of children under human rights law.” Surrogacy is also prohibited in Italy, Germany and France.
However, while the practice of surrogacy is banned in Spain, Spaniards who have traveled abroad and had children through it have not faced, for example, fines or any penalties. In fact, in the last decade, parents of 2,500 children born via surrogate have been recognized by the state. For this reason, the head of the Socialists KO, Patsy López, underlined that the legislation should be amended, explaining that “parents should not be allowed to register their children when they arrive in Spain as if nothing had happened”.
At the same time, organizations such as “Son Nuestros Hijos” (s.s. they are our children) which represents more than 700 families who sought surrogates in other countries, such as the USA and Canada, react by explaining that “the woman chooses everything. She is in control and she decides about her body.” In fact, the said organization points out that if the law is changed, many bachelors, men or women, childless couples or even many same-sex couples will be able to have a child since only in the Madrid region the average time for adoption reaches 15 years.
Analysts do not exclude the issue of surrogate motherhood from being one of the issues of the pre-election period in the country which is preparing for triple elections this year (municipal, regional and parliamentary). Indicative of this is the fact that the conservative Ciudadanos party has stressed that it will try to legalize the altruistic practice in the country. On the contrary, the center-right People’s Party changed the topic of discussion, stressing that “we have to discuss it but at the moment it is not the main problem we have in Spain”.
The country’s surrogacy debate comes as Italy’s conservative majority said a week ago that it would seek to prosecute those who travel abroad to have a child through the practice. Conversely in the United Kingdom the debate is in favor of parents who wish to proceed by surrogate to such an extent that there are suggestions that they be recognized as the parents of the child immediately after its birth.
(With information from The Guardian, BBC, Associated Press, CNBC)
Source :Skai
With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
